Forums that positively showcase Africa must be supported – Horner-Sam

Ghana’s Ambassador to the Netherlands, Madam Sophia Horner-Sam, has said that platforms that pool all nations of Africa together annually to showcase its rich culture and tradition through the arts outside the continent are worthy ventures that must be supported.

In a welcome address at the launch of the This Is Africa Festival, Amsterdam 2020 at the Hilton Hotel in the Hague recently, H.E. Horner-Sam praised Showbiz Africa and PANAFEST Foundation, organisers of the festival for their positive step and promised Ghana’s maximum participation in the event.

Over 15 Heads of Missions and Ambassadors of African countries in the Netherlands graced the launch ceremony of the festival which seeks to create a unique window, each year in a different city, for the world to engage Africa through culture and tourism.

Africans
Over 10,000 Africans and friends of Africa are expected to attend the two-day festival which kicks off with a strictly-by-invitation ball on July 3, 2020. It will bring together the host city’s officials and distinguished sons and daughters of African descent and Ambassadors of African nations for networking purposes.

The main open-air festival is on July 4, 2020 in Amsterdam and will feature some of Africa’s biggest stage performers and booths to sell a variety of items from over 50 African countries.

The festival’s International Relations Director, Nana Yaw Osei Darkwa, said the first set of headline artistes would be announced on February 2, 2020 to be followed by media engagements in Nigeria, Burundi, Kenya and Ethiopia before May, 2020.

The Ambassadors at the launch confirmed participation of their respective countries in the July bash and had stands reserved for them to exhibit their food, dance, fashion, music and material on tourism to sell their countries and Africa as a whole.

In separate messages, the acting President of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA), Bessa Simons, and the PANAFEST Foundation Executive Director, Rabbi Halevi Kohain, both confirmed their organisations’ partnership with the festival and said their outfits would participate actively in the event.

Safari
Mr George Duncan, CEO of Safari Foundation, also talked about the importance of the festival and its similarities to his own annual The Hague African Festival. He said the This Is Africa Festival would accord host nations of African descent an opportunity to experience at first hand and on a massive scale, the diverse cultures of Africa for real integration.

The Minister/Deputy Head of Mission at the Ghana Mission in the Netherlands, Mr M.H Idris, as well as the AsantefuoHene of the Hague, Onipamu Osei Kuffour, and his entourage, were also in attendance to support the launch.

Mr M.H Idris (left), Ambassador Horner-Sam and Nana Yaw Osei Darkwa in a pose at the launch